Peformance at price point for speakers manufactured in China?

There’s also the lower pollution standards to consider when offshoring to China. Very lax laws allow toxic wastes to just be dumped wherever convenient. One can’t do that here. Chinese workers are exposed to all manner of toxins that wouldn’t be allowed here.

On the bright side, they have some remarkable craftsmen/tradesmen whose work can rival anyone in the rest of the world, and is some areas, surpass them. The more they build and specialize, the more we’re going to use their people for labor, as long as the costs are low enough to offset transportation costs.

Anything to save a penny.

All the best,
Nonoise

@kennyc  , the reason I asked was because, as a hypothetical example, if it was widely known (except by me because I tend to be a bit of a cave dweller on this stuff) that a speaker manufactured in China that listed for 5k performed at the level of a US manufactured speaker that listed for 10k, I'd probably point myself in that direction.

That's all.  No big deal.

@mahgister  , not all inexpensive preamps sound good. As an example, in the mid 90s I was listening to my system with a B&K HT digital preamp.  I felt my system could sound more "musical" and I felt the the preamp might be what I should be considering.  As it happened, Audio Advisor was selling an extremely afforadable Vac pre (I found out later that Vac had a couple of different priced product lines at the time) and the brand name vac and the fact that it had a couple of 12AX7s in the circuit appealed to me.  I truly WANTED to like it.  That preamp sounded like nails on a chalkboard.

BTW, what is your picture of?  For some reason, it always makes me think of the cover to the Lou Reed "Rock And Roll Animal" CD.

For sure you are right...

I lived through the same experience with cheap chinese products 10 years ago and also with the product of  a new american player in town at the times  ...

The new american amp well reviewed was so bad i sold it the next day...

The chinese audio toys were not much better at the times ...

Things had changed, this new american company produce better design and improved now... Some chinese companies at lower cost produce as good as this new american company nowadays ...

The problem is identifying the good design ...

I used statistical analysis of all reviews...

i then bought for peanuts a Fosi SK01 S.S. preamplifier and a Douk P2 tubes preamplifier, for 50 bucks each ...😊

The Douk tube amplifier is better now than a european-american one i bought 7 years ago for six time the price of the DOUK...I sold it after one year because the sound quality was too artificial ...

Some chinese low cost products now , without being high end one for sure, answer the huge audiophile demand of the oriental market... Chalk board sounding preamplifier even at low price cannot survive long and sell big ...

Chinese engineers improve design and cost...

Chinese is no more a third developing country...North america are declining countries as the British empire was ... But you know already all this .. 😊

@mahgister , not all inexpensive preamps sound good. As an example, in the mid 90s I was listening to my system with a B&K HT digital preamp. I felt my system could sound more "musical" and I felt the the preamp might be what I should be considering. As it happened, Audio Advisor was selling an extremely afforadable Vac pre (I found out later that Vac had a couple of different priced product lines at the time) and the brand name vac and the fact that it had a couple of 12AX7s in the circuit appealed to me. I truly WANTED to like it. That preamp sounded like nails on a chalkboard.

 

BTW, what is your picture of? For some reason, it always makes me think of the cover to the Lou Reed "Rock And Roll Animal" CD.

It seems that there are those who want to assign some level of greed and unethical behavior  to those in the pursuit of "profit(s)."  Cost cutting measures, whatever that might be, are implemented at many levels, for many reasons.  Many times, it's simply a reduction of waste and excess.  Sometimes cost reductions allow one to compete in an arena of price driven products that they could not successfully participate in otherwise. Or, if they made the attempt employing current processes, they would die trying.  Sometimes the math works, and the manufacturer can lower the cost to the end user, who directly benefits from those cost reductions.   

Some also believe that "profit(s)" go dollar-for-dollar directly into the owner's pockets adding a new exotic sports car or beach home to their collection(s).  Most often, these individuals are true entrepreneurs and take a chuck of those "profit(s)" and invest them into developing new products (or improving old designs) to bring us the new stuff we'll be bragging about owning in future forums.

As for Chinese manufacturing, I've dealt with a number of manufacturers who have product built "off shore."  As some believe, this is not always a hand off where all the responsibility to shifted to the off shore entity.  In many cases, the manufacturers actually have personnel assigned to supervise manufacturing onsite, thus assuring the same quality standards if built domestically. The reasons for reduction of cost of Chinese manufacturing has many components.  Our level of complicity related to those reasons is a discussion for another day.